Žižek at Left Forum: ‘Terrorists, rapists, & criminals among refugees, but who cares?’

Slavoj Žižek, “the most dangerous philosopher in the West,” stirred the melting pot Sunday as the closing speaker at Left Forum 2016 in New York City, making controversial comments about the refugee crisis.

The Slovenian academic was heckled during his epic three-and-a-half hour session at the conference titled ‘Rage, Rebellion, Revolution: Organizing our power’ held at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and streamed live throughout the weekend on RT.com.

Žižek was already labeled a “racist,”“antisemite,” and “misogynist” before he hit the stage, which perhaps is why he started his speech by saying, “If you want to start exchanging insults, I can be extremely brutal, I always win. But, let’s not do it today, maybe.”

That truce with his friend and critics on the left was temporary, after his subsequent words ignited a firestorm that continued to burn on social media Monday.

"The obvious threat, that there are among refugees also terrorists, rapists, criminals, I mean this in a totally neutral way, of course there are but so what?” he said, when discussing reasons behind the “catastrophe” in Europe.

While a more conservative or mainstream audience might have been shocked by his blasé “so what?” attitude towards what they perceive to be a global threat, his comments seemed to ‘trigger’ something else in this left-wing crowd, angry over what they interpreted as “xenophobic” characterizations.

He warned that the more globalized capitalism becomes, the more walls of apartheid emerge and “people circulate less and less freely”.

“Even if most of the Nazi claims about the Jews were true ... their anti-Semitism would still be pathological,” he said. “The true problem is not: Is this true or not? The true problem is why do the Nazis, in order to sustain their world view, need the figure of the Jew – and I claim it’s exactly the same with the growing fears of refugees and immigrants all around Europe”.

What does the obsession with "immigrant threat" tell us about Europe today?- Slavoj Žižek #LeftForum2016

After getting heckled for his “terrorists, rapists and criminals” comment, he responded, “You are underestimating the horror of poverty, the true horror of poverty is also an ethical one, I’m sorry to tell you poverty doesn’t make noble people. The fear of refugee invasion is reaching paranoia proportions.”

"The only unity I see is the unity of struggle."- Slavoj Žižek #LeftForum2016